


Give Myself to the Devil's Sway

by treefrogie84



Series: Old Guard Bingo [5]
Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Gen, Inspired by Pirates of the Caribbean, POV Nile Freeman, Pirate AU, not historically accurate
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-10
Updated: 2020-09-10
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:42:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26382829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/treefrogie84/pseuds/treefrogie84
Summary: The island is a powder keg, waiting for a spark. Soof courseJoe, Nicky, Andy, and Booker have to get themselves captured and tried as pirates, leaving Nile, Quyhn, and Lykon to save them before they get hanged (admittedly, for crimes they did commit).
Relationships: Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Series: Old Guard Bingo [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1901185
Comments: 13
Kudos: 76
Collections: The Old Guard Bingo





	Give Myself to the Devil's Sway

**Author's Note:**

  * For [NamelesslyNightlock](https://archiveofourown.org/users/NamelesslyNightlock/gifts).



> This has the same level of historical accuracy as the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. Do not expect anything approaching actual facts or anything else, this is me putting down my historian hat in favor of something fun and stupid.
> 
> Unbeta'd, we die like immortals.
> 
> Namelessly made the request when I was asking for prompts. I hope you enjoy this dear.

The crowd in the square is massive, packed with people come to bear witness to the hanging. The entire island is a powder keg, just waiting for a spark, and this small port is on the verge even without the colonial government’s idea of entertainment.

Nile slips through them, passing between groups and families, barely jostling anyone. The ones she does bump into glance at her, at the colors carefully embroidered on her shirt before shuffling aside.

She’s leaving a wake, she’s sure, but time is short. The trial was late last night, no one expected the sentence to be carried out at noon the next day. None of the military or governor’s men appear to notice anyway.

(She wonders if they notice anything, or if they’re so used to tuning out the people on this island that they’re blind to the tinder they’re about to spark.)

The magistrate reads out the charges one by one: piracy, theft, murder, assault; witchcraft for Andy, sodomy for the guys, Booker has desertion, even though the army he deserted was thousands of miles away and French besides… It’s a laundry list of trumped up charges so she doesn’t pay too much attention. The authorities think they can end the unrest by hanging a few people, reminding the inhabitants of the island that they’re under the crown’s control. A few fake charges, a kangaroo court, and presto, an end to the civil unrest.

They’re wrong. Nothing is going to end this besides revolution.

Movement out of the corner of her eye and Quynh nods as she takes her position near the stairs to the gallows. Nile can feel Lykon’s eyes on her from whatever high point he’s found to perch on. All three of them would prefer Nicky in his spot, but Nicky’s about to be hanged, so they’re making do. Lykon starting things off before dashing back to the ship to get them under sail, Nile and Quyhn getting the others out through the crowd.

Nile watches and counts as things proceed. Six marines on the stage, bayonets at the ready in case the crowd surges forward unexpectedly. The magistrate, already looking faint in his ridiculous high fashion under the midday sun, discreetly wipes away sweat near one of the uprights. The hangman does his job well, positioning the knot below their ears, making sure there’s not too much slack.

From her spot at the foot of the platform, Nile can hear Joe and Nicky murmuring in their own language, words of comfort and reassurance that she feels bound to confirm.

An arrow sprouts from the hangman’s eye as he reaches for the lever. He falls backwards, into the crowd and out of Nile’s concerns. She swarms onto the platform, kicking the magistrate towards Quynh by the stairs.

Snatching a knife from her belt, she punches one of the marines in the gut before cutting his throat and dropping him to the floor.

The crowd surrounding them erupts into chaos, turning on the soldiers among them. The spark.

Nile ducks under a bayonet thrust, pushing the gun barrel aside as she pops up into the marine’s face. He grabs her shirt, trying to do… something, but trips backwards when she boxes his ear. He drags her with him until she twists and her shirt rips.

Never leave an enemy at your back.

Nile yanks the gun out of his hands, tossing it to the side, and kicking him in the crotch before dropping to one knee to kill him.

Quynh shouts something and Nile pops back up. She’s close to being overwhelmed, already bleeding from her shoulder. Nile rushes across the platform, snatching a musket tossed her way from the crowd below.

“Quynh!” She bellows, coming to a stop. She aims and fires as soon as Quynh’s dropped down, not bothering to care if she hit or not. Quynh eviscerates him anyway, slashing across his belly with her dagger.

Nile rushes over, grinning wildly as she fights. Three marines down— four— five; and the sixth trying to escape without also going into the murderous crowd at their feet. He fails, tripping over an extended arm and falling backwards. Nile winces before gathering herself and sawing at the rope around Andy’s neck.

The final strands part and Andy inhales under her hood. “Nile?”

“Yeah, boss. Working on it.”

The ropes around her wrists are easier, meant to restrain, barely, not hurt. Given a few more minutes, Andy probably could have gotten out of them herself.

“Give me the knife, I’ll get the others. You have an exit for us?”

“Aye,” Nile bites out, passing Andy the knife and pulling another one from her belt. The exit is even going to be precisely up Andy’s alley. Subtlety is lost in situations like this after all, and there’s no point in trying to hide when they’re this public.

She jumps in front of a sword aiming at Quynh’s back and drags her head back into the fight. Over the clash of metal on metal and the shouting, she can hear the others getting free, ransacking the bodies on the gallows stage for weapons.

“Clear,” Booker calls. “Let’s move.”

“Follow,” Quynh orders, hopping down and barrelling into the audience. Most of the violence has exploded outward, away from the courtyard. Nile and Quynh weave through the streets, leading the way back to the docks, picking up speed as the fighting dies down.

Lykon already has the _Scythia_ under sail, barely held at the dock by the ropes. Joe and Nicky take the rear, following them with swords flashing in their hands as the guards stationed at the harbor start to figure out that something is going on.

Andy grabs an axe from a deckhand as soon as she’s on board, starting to chop through the ropes holding them in place as Joe and Nicky scramble across the gangplank.

Quyhn does the same, while Nile and Lykon start shouting orders to get them into the open water. Booker sprints for the wheel, Joe and Nicky grab the bows left at the stern for them and start letting arrows fly, more to discourage the guards from shooting at them than anything else. Nile doubts their accuracy, but how accurate do they need to be right now?

Booker steers them towards the open sea, away from any islands where naval ships can hide and where they can see anyone approaching from miles away.

The crew carries on around them as they slowly gather on the quarter deck, checking for any wounds that need attention, reaffirming that they really are all here. And then they split off, Joe and Nicky to their tiny cabin and Andy, Quynh, and Lykon to the (comparatively) larger captain’s cabin, leaving Nile and Booker on deck.

“Thank you,” he says quietly. “That couldn’t have been easy.”

“Walking as a free African woman into a slave state? No. But it had to be done.” Nile breathes out, releasing some of the stress from the past couple of days. “I’ve done worse things, and I suspect that we just sparked a revolution. Another free isle.”

“Hopefully, this one stays free,” Booker says dourly, reaching for a bottle of rum.

Nile steals it away from him, taking a swallow. “One day. In the meantime, we need to do some straight piracy for a while, setting up your rescue took most of the coin we had on hand.”

He grumbles something, but nods.

“Get some sleep, Book. Royal accommodations are always lacking.”

He nods again, seemingly too tired to do much else, and follows her below decks, splitting off to his own lonely hammock while she heads towards hers.

**Author's Note:**

> This might, at some point, end up as part of a longer Pirate AU. I'm trying to keep these bingo fills at around 1k or less and when attempt 1 was at 2500 words and still going... I started over.


End file.
